A revised version of the Crypto Clarity Act is circulating in Washington just days before the U.S. Senate is set to vote on the crypto market structure bill on Sept. 15.
Bitcoin Magazine, citing reporting from Crypto in America’s Eleanor Terrett and Punchbowl’s Brendan Pedersen, said the updated draft includes several changes. Among them: DeFi protocols that are not considered decentralized would be required to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, and the bill also revises language on how credit unions can engage with crypto-related systems.
Updated draft spells out DeFi test
Under the version described by the reporters, a decentralized finance application would fail the relevant test if any person can control or materially alter its functionality, if it does not operate solely through pre-established transparent encoded rules, or if someone can restrict or censor its use.
The draft also adds that a federal credit union may use a digital asset or distributed ledger system to perform, provide, or deliver any activity, function, product, or service it is otherwise authorized by law to carry out.
Vote moved from August to Sept. 15
Lawmakers had hoped to move the bill in August before a five-week recess, but that did not happen. The Senate is now scheduled to vote on Sept. 15.
According to the reporters cited in the story, the bill is still not bipartisan. Senate Republicans began circulating the revised legislation on Thursday.
Bill would split oversight across regulators
The Clarity Act is designed to create a formal framework for dividing oversight among regulators and for determining which digital assets should be treated as securities, commodities, or stablecoins.
Crypto industry executives have pushed for that kind of framework for years. Although the House of Representatives passed the bill last July, it has stalled this year, largely because the banking lobby and crypto firms have clashed over the issue of paying customers yield on stablecoins.
Democrats still want changes
A separate draft addressing ethics issues began circulating in July. That version would ban government officials from promoting crypto or making money from it, a point Democrats have used in criticism of the Trump family, according to the report.
Even with the latest revisions, a group of Democrats said the bill still does not go far enough and called for amendments. Lawmakers supportive of crypto have in turn accused Democratic politicians of intentionally holding the measure back.
President Donald Trump has also urged lawmakers to push the legislation through. In August, he said that for the U.S. to remain the “undisputed leader in Bitcoin and crypto,” lawmakers needed to pass what he called “very, very powerful legislation.”
The report was first published by Bitcoin Magazine and written by Mathew Di Salvo.